Category Archives: Fall 2014

In early 2013, the Board and subsequently the membership voted to change the Bylaws to combine the Nominations Committee and the Elections Committee into one committee. Thus the Nominations and Elections committee inaugural year was this year.

The first task of the Committee was to determine who should be nominated for the positions of Vice- President/President Elect, Treasurer, and Director. After requesting nominations from the membership and brainstorming ideas for potential candidates, the Committee presented the following slate of candidates to the Board for approval:

Vice-President/President Elect: Debbie Ginsberg and Julie Pabarja

Treasurer: Stephanie Crawford and Valerie Kropf

Director: Jesse Bowman and Robert Martin

The Board approved the slate and approved the election take place between Tuesday, February 18th and Friday, March 14th.

The Committee working with AALL got all of the voting credentials set for all of the eligible voters in time for the start of the election. There were no CALL members without e-mail addresses, so no paper ballots were produced. The election began as scheduled on February 18th and ended as scheduled on March 14th. There were a few members that did not receive their e-mail from AALL with their voting credentials, however those issues were resolved quickly and the members were able to vote.

Of the 266 members eligible to vote, 144 members elected the following candidates:

Julie Pabarja, Vice-President/President Elect

Stephanie Crawford, Treasurer

Robert Martin, Director

The Nominations and Elections Committee members included Denise Glynn, Ramsey Donnell, Joan Ogden, Kathleen Bruner, Lenore Glanz, Lyonette Louis-Jacques, and Susan Retzer. A very special thank you to Joan Ogden – she is a wealth of information and frankly the knowledge keeper of all things related to the CALL election. We would not have had such a successful election without her wonderful expertise.

This year we had a 54.1% voting rate. In years past the rates have been:

54.7% in 2012/2013

45.4% in 2011/2012

46.5% in 2010/2011

51.9% in 2009/2010

47.8% in 2008/2009

Hopefully next year we can have an unprecedented turn-out to choose our new Board members from a wonderful slate of dedicated CALL members!

The Placement & Recruitment Committee continued utilizing the job posting procedure which was updated during the 2012-2013 membership year. The procedure successfully serves members, employers, job seekers, and enables an efficient process for committee use.

Employers fill out a simple web form on the CALL website. The committee member who receives the form confirms the posting and uploads it on the website, usually within a day. The procedure also triggers an email to the listserv. When requested by an employer submitting a job opening, the committee member sends an announcement to nearby library schools. It helps connect CALL with library students and recent alumni from graduate library programs. Using this described procedure, the committee posted 30 jobs on the CALL website and listserv during the membership year.

One enhancement to the Jobs Form this year was the addition of a print button which allows each job position to be easily printed. The print feature was added through the efforts of Debbie Ginsberg of the Public Relations Committee.

The committee also collaborated with the Public Relations Committee in the updating of the CALL Brochure. Additionally, Ms. Kara Dunn, an attorney interested in law librarianship contacted the Committee who wanted a “Day in the Life: Law Librarian” experience as promoted on the CALL Jobs and Careers web page. A member of the committee met with her and was able to connect with a law librarian from Northwestern University. It was challenging to find somebody who was willing to meet with Ms. Dunn and by extension, arrange for a shadowing opportunity. It is suggested that the CALL board deliver some sort of message to the membership that part of their professional responsibilities is to try, as much as it is possible, to make themselves available to individuals who are considering entering the profession.

Projects for 2014-2015

Participate in local college and university career

Work with Continuing Education committee to develop a CALL program on the profession of law librarianship for library science and other interested

In collaboration with the Education Committee, develop and education program relating to placement or recruitment.

Meetings

In the 2013-2014 year, the Committee conducted two in-person status meetings, in addition to an online meeting. The in-person meetings were well received, as they better facilitated discussion and brainstorming among the members regarding Committee plans and objectives. Following the meetings, the Committee members were provided a meeting summary with action items.

Public Relations

The Committee continued to seek opportunities to promote CALL and its members to the public and through AALL.

CALL at AALL/AALL Marketing Award

Member Scott Vanderlin set up a unique and engaging table display at AALL’s 2013 Annual Meeting. The display, “Call CALL in the Exhibit Hall” featured a phone which attendees used to listen to pre-recorded information about CALL. The table was submitted for an AALL Excellence in Marketing Award, Best Use of Technology and was selected as the winner.

Scott will also design the table for the 2014 Annual Meeting.

Brochure

With the help of member Carolyn Hersch and Membership Committee Member Karl Pettit, the CALL Brochure was revised for the 2014 AALL Annual Meeting. The new brochure is informative yet visually engaging.

Law Day

Working with outgoing Director Pamela Cipkowski, CALL put an ad in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin for Lay Day 2014 (May 1).

Pictures at Events

Member Emily Barney and other members took many pictures at CALL business meetings in 2013-14. The pictures have been useful for projects such as the new Brochure. CALL also now has a Flickr account to help share these pictures and promote their use.

CONELL/Give-Away

CALL will participate in the CONELL Marketplace at the 2014 Annual Meeting. Members will be on hand to answer questions as well as give away brochures and lip balm.

Plans for the Future

Over the 2014-15 year, the Committee plans to work more closely with AALL, providing the organization with more information about chapter events and members. The Committee will also reach out to the Meetings Committee to help promote events and speakers. The Committee will also work more to promote relevant events at individual libraries and member happenings.

Social Media

Facebook/Twitter

The Committee is currently engaging with the CALL membership through the social media platforms Facebook (79 Likes), Twitter (64 Followers) and LinkedIn (76 Members). This year, the social media efforts were focused on improving user engagement on Facebook. Through Facebook Insights, we were able to determine that the posts that users engaged with the most were announcements for the CALL business meetings. Our Facebook fans also responded well to articles on the law librarian profession. Other posts that had a large reach discussed current news and developments related to the Association, including CALL award winners, AALL election results and the AALL Annual Conference.

In the 2013-2014 year, the Committee unlinked the CALL Twitter account from the Facebook account. This allowed us to generate more Twitter friendly content, which entailed limiting our posts to 140 characters or less. The Committee aims to use Twitter as a platform to interact with CALL members, potential members and the law librarian community. To achieve this goal, the CALL twitter page has begun following the feeds of individual CALL members, law school libraries and professional library associations.

Website

Archives

The Board requested that the Committee research how other chapters archive their websites. From what the Committee was able to learn, other chapters do not have procedures to formally archive their sites.

Website Updates

The Committee added a Grants/Awards section to better promote these important activities. While no longer in the navigation menu, CALL website continues to promote “Finding IL Law” through a prominent side button.

The Committee upgraded the CALL WordPress installation to version 3.9 to ensure that the site remains secure and up to date.

Plans for the future

The Committee will solicit member feedback on the website’s usability. We will also work with the Bulletin Committee to help create a more web-friendly CALL Bulletin.

Listserv

Member Kara Young monitored CALL’s listserv and made changes as needed. Kara will serve as co-chair in 2014-15.

Often, whether in a law school or law firm setting, the challenge is finding enough time to get everything done. In particular, as summer’s leisurely stroll winds down and fall accelerates into full sprint mode, you may wish you had more time in your day.